Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


"'Up until the day someone kills for the first time, he's not a murderer. He's just an ordinary person.'"

To say that I have been disappointed with Karin Fossum's Don't Look Back (2002) would be going too far. But since I love her writing and have rated two of her novels with five stars - which for me is an exceedingly rare rating - I am obviously biased and I expect a masterpiece from her every time. Alas, this novel is quite far from a five-star material. Ratings are relative, though: had I not known other books by Ms. Fossum and had I read this novel first, I would most likely have rated it higher.

Norwegian country side, a remote village. A little girl is walking back home from a sleepover at her friend's house. A van stops and a man offers her a ride. When the girl does not show up home long after the expected time the mother is sick with worry. At the same time body of a very young woman is found near a lake, with no visible signs of violence. Inspector Sejer and officer Skarre (in his first appearance in the series) arrive on the scene. The dead woman is soon identified to be Annie, a 15-year old girl, mature and wise beyond her age, active in sports, and an overall wonderful person. While Annie's eighteen-year old boyfriend is an obvious suspect the neighbors are also uneasy about a young man with Down syndrome: he is different and thus not to be trusted. Connections to events from the past also emerge and the list of suspects grows.

Too much happens in the novel for my liking. I adore Ms. Fossum's later novels where few events happen and the reader is instead offered a depth of psychological insights of what it takes for an ordinary person to become a murderer or how ordinary events in an ordinary life can result in major tragedies. This novel, the second in the Sejer series, seems to me a sort of trial run before the author's more mature works.

The thread where Sejer is trying to 'reconstruct Annie,' to understand her personality and her motives, is the best in the novel. I like a sort of symmetry that the author creates when Annie's boyfriend also tries to reconstruct her via files on her computer. Everybody is trying to understand why Annie's personality seemed to undergo a drastic change about a year ago.

Ms. Fossum's writing does not read as masterful as in her later novels: there are some awkward passages. Quoting Sejer's thought process (in italics!) is a glaring example: the readers should be able to figure it out on their own. There are also traces of naïveté in several fragments. On the plus side I have greatly enjoyed the author's teaser at the beginning of the plot as well as the "flies on the window pane" segment. The reader will likely find the passages about Sejer's daughter and his adopted grandson touching and sweet.

I really enjoyed reading this novel. It is a very good book, just not nearly as good as the author's masterpieces.

Three and a half stars.




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